abcnews.go.com
03.03.2022 / 20:47
UNESCO fears Ukraine harm as Russian culture backlash grows
Ukraine's cultural heritage, as international cultural institutions stepped up their condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Hermitage Amsterdam said it has long distanced itself from politics in Russia under President Vladimir Putin as it built close ties with the Hermitage, giving the Amsterdam museum “access to one of the world’s most famous art collections, which we could draw from” for exhibitions.“Russia’s recent attack on Ukraine makes keeping this distance no longer tenable,” the Dutch museum said in a statement. “Our Board and directors have decided to cut ties with the State Hermitage Museum.”It added that it hoped to eventually be able to restore ties pending peace and “changes in the future of Russia.”In another move to culturally isolate Moscow, the Swedish Academy that hands out the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature broke a long-standing practice not to make political statements and condemned the invasion.In a statement, the academy noted that its history and mission are deeply rooted in the traditions of freedom of expression, belief and inquiry.“We therefore join the legion of our fellow academies, literary and cultural institutions, places of higher learning, defenders of a free press, human rights organizations and nation states in expressing our abhorrence of the Russian government’s unjustified attack on Ukraine and its people,” it said.The United Nations’ cultural agency, meanwhile, sounded the alarm about the damage to Ukraine’s cultural patrimony in announcing it was working to assess Ukraine’s educational and cultural institutions and its U.N.-designated heritage sites.Ukraine is home to seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the famous St.